Hylaeosaurus

Thanks to the historical associations between Ireland and the UK, the Dublin Museum has some really great pieces that you would not necessarily expect. I found this in their collections and was delighted to do so. It’s a cast of the original Hylaeosaurus a little known armoured dinosaur but one with an important history. This specimen was found (or at least made it’s way into science) by the legendary Gideon Mantell and was one of just three dinosaurs that Richard Owen put into his newly erected clade ‘Dinosauria’. Yes this really is one of *the* original dinosaurs.

What I really like about this (aside from it being quite a cool specimen) is the lovely work on the cast. it’s well painted, and beautifully mounted in it’s wooden frame which has exquisite lettering. This is from a time when money was no object to scientists and even something destined for a storeroom would be mounted and treated this well. Ah, those were the days….

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4 Responses to “Hylaeosaurus”

Good to know about this. The holotype is halfway through being totally prepared out of the block and always nice to know of casts that preserve the original association. Interestingly it’s labelled with the hardly ever used synonym owenii, which was a name Mantell once used for the specimen, but after he’s already coined the species name armatus.